("Classical Adlerian Theory and Practice" is a chapter in Psychoanalytic Versions

of the Human Condition: Philosophies of Life and Their Impact on

Practice, edited by Paul Marcus and Alan Rosenberg. It was published in August,
1998 by New York University Press and may be ordered directly from them, Barnes
and Noble, or Amazon Books. Dr. Marcus has kindly granted permission to post this
chapter on the Alfred Adler Institutes of San Francisco and Northwestern
Washington web site. Any reproduction of this material must include the chapter
title, authors, book title, and editors. The book includes sixteen contributors, from
different theoretical perspectives, presenting their conceptions of the human
condition, understandings of psychopathology, and brands of clinical
psychoanalysis. Original formatting has been adapted to HTML, consequently, end
notes have been bracketed within paragraphs. For additional information contact
Dr. Stein at 360-647-5670)

Overview

Over the half century since Alfred Adler articulated his theory of personality and
system of psychotherapy, his ideas have gradually and persistently permeated the
whole of contemporary psychology (Ellenberger 1970, 645-648). The shift of
psychoanalysis to ego psychology reflected Adler's original thinking and Adler was
"hailed by certain psychoanalysts as a precursor of the later developments of
psychoanalysis" (Ellenberger 1970, 638). Adler's observation that "human beings
live in the realm of meanings" reflects the social constructivist view of human
behavior. An early feminist, he held that both men and women suffered from our
society's overvaluing of men and undervaluing of women, and he believed the only
positive relationship between men and women was one of equality. His earliest work
in which he argued for the unity of mind and body was a precursor of psychosomatic
medicine.

Even the findings of anthropologists, biologists, and physicists parallel Adlerian

concepts. Adler's view of the interconnectedness of all living beings and their natural
proclivities toward cooperation has been echoed by anthropologists (Ho 1993; Kim
and Berry 1993; Maybury-Lewis 1972), and biologists (Augros and Stancui 1988;
Hamilton 1964; Simon 1990; Trivers 1971; Wilson 1975). His concept of the style of
life, where one central theme is reflected in every psychological expression, suggests
the concept in physics of the hologram, wherein each part of a whole is an enfolded
image of that whole (Briggs and Peat 1989). His concept of the final goal, a fictional
future reference point that pulls all movements in the same direction, is similar to
that of a strange attractor in chaos theory, a magnetic end point that pulls on and sets
limits for a process (Nelson 1991). He believed in the fundamental creative power of
individuals and their freedom to choose and change their direction in life; this is very
similar to the biological process called autopoesis which is the autonomous, self-
renewing, and self-directing nature of all life forms (Nelson 1991).

When sociologists, anthropologists, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, and

psychotherapists begin describing remarkably similar dynamics, one wonders if we
are on the brink of a new unified field theory. Forty years ago, Alexander Müller
frequently referred to Adler's body of work as "philosophical anthropology," and
held that it had the potential for providing the magnetic center that would draw other
disciplines together (Müller 1992).

The scientific paradigm shift and intellectual climate of the 1990's might well be ripe
for a re-discovery of Adler's original and full contribution to an understanding of
human beings and their relationship to the world. He created an exquisitely
integrated, holistic theory of human nature and psychopathology, a set of principles
and techniques of psychotherapy, a world view, and a philosophy of living.

In this chapter, we will first describe Adler's view of the human condition and his
ideas of personality development, including optimal development. Second, we will
outline his explanation of how this process goes astray and results in
psychopathology. Third, we will sketch the Adlerian levels of intervention which
include not only psychotherapy but also preventive programs in the areas of
parenting and education.

The Human Condition and Personality Development

The core of Adler's integrated complex of philosophy, theory, and practice was a
vigorously optimistic, humanistic view of life. He offered a value-oriented
psychology that envisioned human beings as capable of profound cooperation in
living together and striving for self-improvement, self-fulfillment, and contribution
to the common welfare. Indeed, Adler predicted that if we did not learn to cooperate,
we would run the risk of eventually annihilating each other. Thus, if we were to
distill his view of the human condition into one main idea, it would be the concept of
the Social Human, inextricably interconnected with others and all of nature. The
central problem that humans face is how to live on this planet together, appreciating
what others have contributed in the past, and making life better for present and future
generations.

Central Concept: Feeling of Community

Following from his view of the human condition, Adler based his psychology on the
central concept of (in German) Gemeinschaftsgefühl. It is a difficult concept to
translate adequately and has been translated by the phrases social interest, social
feeling, community feeling, and social sense (Ansbacher and Ansbacher 1956, 134).
Adler and many of his followers came to prefer the term feeling of
community (Bruck 1978). It is a multi-level concept. Individuals may understand and
put into practice some levels and neglect the development of others.

If people have developed social interest at the affective level, they are likely to feel a
deep belonging to the human race and, as a result, are able to empathize with their
fellow humans. They can then feel very much at home on the earth -- accepting both
the comforts as well as the discomforts of life. At the cognitive level, they can
acknowledge the necessary interdependence with others, recognizing that the welfare
of any one individual ultimately depends on the welfare of everyone. At the
behavioral level, these thoughts and feelings can then be translated into actions
aimed at self development as well as cooperative and helpful movements directed
toward others. Thus, at its heart, the concept of feeling of community encompasses
individuals' full development of their capacities, a process that is both personally
fulfilling and results in people who have something worthwhile to contribute to one
another. At the same time, the concept denotes a recognition and acceptance of the
interconnectedness of all people.

These ideas of Adler's also speak to the current discussion of the relationship
between self and society. Unlike others, he saw no fundamental conflict between self
and society, individuality, and relatedness, self interest and social interest. These are
false dichotomies. The development of self and connectedness are recursive
processes that influence one another in positive ways. The greater one's personal
development, the more able one can connect positively with others; the greater one's
ability to connect with others, the more one is able to learn from them and develop
oneself. This idea has been rediscovered by recent authors (Guisinger and Blatt
1994).

Adler saw the connections among living beings in many different spheres and on
many different levels. An individual can feel connected with another, with family,
friends, community, and so on, in ever widening circles. This connectedness can
encompass animals, plants, even inanimate objects until, in the largest sense, the
person feels connected with the entire cosmos (Müller, 1992, 138). If people truly
understood and felt this connectedness, then many of the self-created problems of
life -- war, prejudice, persecution, discrimination -- might cease to exist.

The feeling of interconnectedness among people is essential not only for living
together in society, but also for the development of each individual person. It has
long been well known that if human infants do not have emotional connections with
their caregivers they will fail to thrive and are likely to die.

Furthermore, individuals need to acknowledge their connectedness both to the past

as well as to the future. What we are able to do in our lives depends very much on
the contributions made in the past by others. A critical question that Adler saw
facing each person was, "What will be your contribution to life? Will it be on the
useful or useless side of life?"

The title that Adler gave to his system, "Individual Psychology," does not
immediately suggest its social foundation. It does not mean a psychology of
individuals. On the contrary, Adler's psychology is very much a social psychology in
which the individual is seen and understood within his or her social context.
Accordingly, Adler devised interventions not only for individual clients but also for
families and schools.

In German, the term Individualpsychologie means the psychology of the unique,

indivisible, and undivided person (Davidson 1991, 6). What Adler meant by this is
that, first, Individual Psychology is an idiographic science. How an individual
develops is unique, creative, and dependent on the subjective interpretations the
person gives to life. Second, Adler meant to convey that an individual behaves as a
unit in which the thoughts, feelings, actions, dreams, memories, and even physiology
all lead in the same direction. The person is a system in which the whole is greater
than and different from the sum of its parts. In this whole, Adler saw the unity of the
person. In the symphony of a person's behavior, he discerned the consistent melodic
theme running throughout. This theme may have many variations in tempo, pitch, or
intricacy, but it is nevertheless recognizable. Thus, to understand a person, we must
look at the whole person, not at the parts, isolated from one another. After we grasp
the guiding theme, however, it is easy to see how each individual part is consistent
with the theme.

Development of Personality

How do we come to develop this guiding theme? It is an active and creative process
in which individuals attribute meaning to the life experiences they have faced. They
construct out of this raw material the subjective reality to which they respond. Thus,
they are not passive victims of heredity or environment (not objects) but active
constructors and interpreters of their situations (subjects).

This process begins in infancy as children become conscious of felt insufficiencies in

the face of normal, everyday tasks, especially when they compare themselves to
older children and adults. As a result, they experience what Adler
called inferiority feelings, which are the very normal reactions to the awareness of
not being able to function in a way that we wish. Adler also described this as
experiencing a "minus situation." These feelings become motivation for striving
toward what he called a "plus situation."

Individuals strive in this direction because of the "creative power of life, which
expresses itself in the desire to develop, to strive, to achieve, and even to compensate
for defeats in one direction by striving for success in another. This power
is teleological, it expresses itself in the striving after a goal, and, in this striving,
every bodily and psychological movement is made to cooperate" (Ansbacher and
Ansbacher 1956, 92).

Influenced by the German philosopher Hans Vaihinger, Adler held that individuals
were not always guided in their actions by reality. They were also guided by fictions,
or what they believe to be true, though these beliefs are largely unconscious
(Vaihinger 1925). These ideas formed the basis of Adler's concept of the final goal.
The final goal is a fictional creation of the individual--an imagined ideal situation of
perfection, completion, or overcoming. Movement toward the final goal is motivated
by a striving to overcome the feelings of inferiority. Although the final goal
represents a subjective, fictional view of the future, it is what guides the person in
the present.

In an active, courageous individual possessing a strong feeling of community, the

striving toward the final goal to overcome inferiority feelings may be expressed as a
life-long movement toward optimal development -- with full realization that there is
no end point to this striving. This is quite similar to Abraham Maslow's view of
individuals striving toward self actualization -- toward the full realization of their
potential (Maslow 1970).

In dealing with inferiority feelings and developing the final goal, the influences of
the family (both parents and siblings) as well as external social influences may be
critical. Children learn to cope with and/or overcome difficulties in life through the
support and encouragement of significant others who promote their development,
cooperation, and interdependence. Adler considered the connection with and
influence of the mother as the primary factor in the early development of the feeling
of community. In our current social structure, fathers and caregivers are also
recognized as important influences. With this positive foundation, children are likely
to grow up to handle what Adler called the three tasks of life, work, community, and
love, in a satisfactory way (Adler 1992a, 16-18). As a result, they are likely to
develop the courage and ability to continue their growth and make a contribution to
life. If, however, children do not receive the proper encouragement and support and,
as a result, their feelings of inferiority become exaggerated, they are likely to be
discouraged. They may adopt a final goal that is equally exaggerated to compensate
for their deeply felt inferiority. Instead of developing themselves and overcoming
difficulties, they pursue a goal of imagined superiority and consequently must avoid
real tests of themselves. Their final goal would then be an egocentric one, on the
useless side of life, rather than a goal of cooperation with others and a feeling of
community. The final goal is the result of a process that is unique to each individual.
Two persons with similar feelings of inferiority -- e.g., a deeply felt lack of
intelligence -- may develop very different goals. One person's goal might be to enlist
others in his or service, thus avoiding any tests of intelligence that might be failed.
The other's goal might be to outdo all others thereby demonstrating her superior
intelligence in all situations.

Adler called an individual's characteristic approach to life the style of life. In various
writings throughout Adler's career, he expressed this concept as self or ego,
personality, individuality, the unity of the personality, an individual form of creative
activity, the method of facing problems, one's opinion about oneself and the
problems of life, or the whole attitude toward life (Ansbacher and Ansbacher 1956,
174).

The style of life, then, becomes the way in which individuals approach or avoid the
three main tasks of life and try to realize their fictional final goal. In healthy persons,
this dealing with the tasks of life is relatively flexible. They can find many ways of
solving problems and, when one way is blocked, they can choose another. This is not
so for the disturbed individuals who usually insist on one way or no way.

Like others, Adler viewed the first five years of life as central in the development of
personality. By that time, children have experienced enough to have adopted a
prototype of their goal and style of life, although there can be some modification
throughout the rest of childhood and adolescence. After that, these ways of
conceiving of both self and the world seem to fashion for us a set of lenses through
which we see the world. Adler called this the scheme of apperception. Individual
perception, then, is limited, and there will always be a discrepancy between reality
and the perception of it. For normal people, this discrepancy is relatively small; for
psychologically disturbed people, the discrepancy is much greater.

In an optimal situation of development, adults will win childrens' cooperation,

helping them to develop a sense of significance through contributing to others,
minimizing their inferiority feelings, stimulating their courage, guiding them to be
active, and helping them feel a part of the whole. These experiences will help
children identify and develop their capacities and become cooperative, productive,
and satisfied adults. They will be able to see and feel their interdependence with
others and be challenged to develop sufficient courage to deal with difficulties, to
connect intimately with others, and to improve themselves for the benefit of all.
They may eventually be guided by universal values or principles -- perhaps of
justice, beauty, truth, etc. They will be able to use their inferiority feelings as spurs
for continued development. They will strive for superiority over difficulties rather
than superiority over others. They will have solved the problems posed by the tasks
of life in a mutually beneficial way.

This optimal development is different from what is commonly referred to as

"normal" or "average." Although many people are reasonably cooperative, they may
do just enough in relationships and in work to get by, living without deep
commitment and passion and not functioning at their maximum potential. They may
be somewhat bored and may endure chronic tension or "stress" without significant
emotional or physical symptoms. When they face particularly difficult challenges,
they may not have developed their courage and cooperation to the extent that they
are able to cope adequately. At that point, they may experience a shock that might
trigger psychological symptoms. Examples of challenges that might trigger such
symptoms include layoffs, illnesses, marriage, having children, divorce, middle-age,
children leaving home, or retirement.

One potential challenge for mental health professionals is to help these "normal"
individuals develop themselves to the maximum -- to set an ideal of mental health
that is seen as possible and inspiring, and to identify the steps needed to get there.
This is described later in this chapter.

Adler's View of Psychopathology

Adler's view of psychopathology is deceptively simple. He conceived of

psychological disturbances generally occurring in the presence of two conditions: an
exaggerated inferiority feeling and an insufficiently developed feeling of
community. Under these conditions, a person may experience or anticipate failure
before a task that appears impossible and may become "discouraged." Adler tended
to use this term as opposed to terms such as "pathological" or "sick." When
individuals are discouraged, they often resort to fictional means to relieve or mask--
rather than overcome--their inferiority feelings. What they are attempting to do is
bolster their feelings of self by "tricks," while they avoid actually confronting their
seemingly impossible difficulties. These tricks may give them a comforting but
fragile feeling of superiority.

A man who was pampered a child may give up looking for work, become depressed,
and then depend on parents or public assistance for support. Forcing others to
provide for him may yield a secret feeling of power and superiority that compensates
for his feelings of inferiority. Unprepared for the normal challenges that might lead
to failure, he pays the price for his painful depression, but uses it to maintain his
passive self-indulgence and protect himself from a real test of his capacities.

A woman who was abused by her father as a child may choose to reject and
depreciate all men as vile creatures and never engage in a satisfactory love
relationship. She may feel lonely, but she can always feel morally superior to all
abusive males who are punished by her rejection. She would rather punish all men
for the sins of her father, than conquer her fears and develop the ability to love one
man.

At a more extreme level, a profound and devastating feeling of inferiority might lead
to a grandiose psychotic delusion of being God.

What all of these situations have in common are adults whose inferiority feelings
seem so overwhelming and in whom the feeling of community is so underdeveloped
that they retreat to protect their fragile yet inflated sense of self. They employ what
Adler called safeguarding devices to do this (Ansbacher and Ansbacher 1956, 263-
280).

Individuals can use safeguarding devices in attempts both to excuse themselves from
failure and depreciate others. Safeguarding devices include symptoms, depreciation,
accusations, self-accusations, guilt, and various forms of distancing. Symptoms such
as anxiety, phobias, and depression, can all be used as excuses for avoiding the tasks
of life and transferring responsibility to others. In this way, individuals can use their
symptoms to shield themselves from potential or actual failure in these tasks. Of
course, individuals may be able to do well in one or two of the tasks of life and have
difficulties in only one, e.g., in work, community, or love.

Depreciation can be used to deflate the value of others, thereby achieving a sense of
relative superiority through aggressive criticism or subtle solicitude. Accusations
attribute the responsibility for a difficulty or failure to others in an attempt to relieve
an individual of the responsibility and to blame others for the failure. Self-
accusations can stave off criticisms from others or even elicit comforting
protestations of value from them. Guilt may create a feeling of pious superiority over
others and clear the way for continuing harmful actions rather than correcting them.
Distancing from tasks and people can be done in many ways including
procrastination, avoiding commitments, abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, or suicide.

These safeguarding devices are largely unconscious and entail very real suffering on
the part of individuals who employ them. For them, however, the protection and
elevation of the sense of self is paramount, and they prefer to distress themselves or
others rather than reveal their hidden exaggerated feeling of inferiority.

There are three categories of influences that might stimulate the development of
these exaggerated inferiority feelings in children: (1) physical handicaps, (2) family
dynamics, and (3) societal influences (Adler 1992a).

Children can either be born with or develop physical handicaps (e.g., deformity,
illness) with which they may feel overburdened. The care and attention given to
them because of their difficulties may result in their expectation that others should
always make their lives easy and keep them the center of care and attention. They
may never test their own strengths. The pity or scorn they might also receive may
negatively influence their self-evaluations. In any case, their inferiority feelings are
likely to become exaggerated.

Family dynamics, including parenting styles and position in the family constellation,
is the second category of influences on the development of the inferiority complex.
Parenting styles that cause trouble for children are divided into two main categories:
pampering, and neglect and abuse. Children who have been pampered have come to
expect being the focus of attention and having others serve their whims. They have
been trained to take rather than to give and have not learned how to face and
overcome problems by themselves. As a result, they have become very dependent on
others and feel unsure of themselves or unable to face the tasks of life. Thus, they
demand undue help and attention from others. These demands may be expressed
through aggression (e.g., commands) or through weakness (e.g., shyness), by
positive (e.g., charm) or negative (e.g., anger) means. Furthermore, when pampered
children grow up and others no longer do their bidding, they may interpret this
refusal as aggression against them, which may lead to their taking revenge on these
others.

Children who have been neglected, rejected, or abused have not experienced love
and cooperation. They do not know what it means to feel a positive connection to
others and, as a result, often feel isolated and suspicious. When faced with
difficulties, they tend to overrate these difficulties and to underrate their own
abilities. To make up for what they did not receive as children, they may feel entitled
to special consideration or compensation. They may want others to treat them well
but do not feel an obligation to respond in turn. Remarkably, both pampered and
neglected or abused children may have similar expectations as adults. The first group
expects the familiar pampering to continue; the other demands pampering as
compensation. Both may feel entitled to everything and obligated to nothing.

In addition to the influences of the parents, Adler was one of the first to recognize
that children's positions in the family constellation of siblings could affect their
development in critical ways (Adler 1992b, 126-132). Being a significant member of
the family is important and children may become discouraged if they think they have
a disadvantageous position.

For example, oldest children's experience of being "dethroned" by their younger

siblings may stimulate them to decide that regaining their power is the most
important thing they could do. Later in life, the pattern of striving for pre-eminence
may continue at work, where they control subordinates excessively, and at home
where they may become domestic tyrants.

Second children, experiencing their older siblings as pacemakers, may respond by

continually striving to surpass and conquer them. If this appears to be too difficult,
these children may give up and withdraw from the competition. Youngest children
have many pacemakers and can become quite ambitious and accomplished, or they
may not develop the courage necessary to realize his or her ambitions and remains
helpless babies. Only children tend to spend their lives in the company of adults,
frequently as the center of attention. As a result, these children may fail to learn how
to cooperate with peers.

Of course, Adler realized that the examples listed above are only a few of many
possible outcomes. The objective position of the child is not the influencing factor;
instead, it is the psychological position and the meaning that the child gives to that
position. Thus, two children born several years apart may grow up in ways that are
quite similar to those of only children. On the other hand, if parents help their
children cope with the unique demands of their positions in the family constellation,
and if there is a cooperative rather than a competitive home atmosphere, the children
are likely not to develop the characteristics associated with each of the positions.

The third category of influence is the societal factors outside the family that also
shape how individuals develop their views of themselves and the world. Adler
recognized the school as a dominant influence and spent much of his time training
teachers and establishing child guidance clinics attached to the schools throughout
Vienna.

Social discrimination on the basis of poverty, ethnicity, gender, religion, or

educational level can also exacerbate inferiority feelings. Adler emphasized that it
was not just the objective facts or influences that had an impact on the child, but the
interpretation the child gives to them. Children who are discriminated against
because of physical deformities or socio-economic status, for example, may find
maintaining a positive sense of self difficult. But doing so is possible if someone
provides sufficient contact, understanding, and encouragement.
Finally, in a way that was far ahead of many others of his day, Adler recognized the
destructive influence of our culture's archaic view of men and women. He observed
that women were typically devalued and this was a major influence in their
exaggerated feelings of inferiority. But he also realized that men, too, were adversely
affected. The over-valuing of men often leads to extremely high expectations, and
when men begin to see that they cannot meet these expectations, their inferiority
feelings also increase. Adler felt that the healthiest arrangement is a recognized
equality of value between men and women, which would then result in a higher level
of cooperation between them (Adler 1980).

Early experiences, both inside and outside the family, in combination with hereditary
attributes and physiological processes, are used creatively by children to form an
impression of themselves and life. A final goal of success, significance, and security
is imagined and a style of life is adopted to prepare for that goal. Individuals who are
not self-pampering or discouraged hold opinions of themselves and the tasks of life
that are reasonably close to what Adler called "common sense." These individuals
feel connected to one another and have developed their ability to cooperate.

People who do not feel connected to others and have not developed the ability to
cooperate will develop a private logic that becomes increasingly more skewed from
common sense. This private logic involves
an antithetical scheme of apperception that the person uses rigidly to classify self,
others, and experience. In child development, an antithetical scheme is related to
children's need for security. They quickly slot their perceptions into very simple
categories, often based on whether the stimulus is considered "good" or "bad." Under
normal conditions of development, however, children gradually develop the ability
to perceive the subtle gradations of qualities in themselves and others. Disturbed
individuals, however, because of their heightened feelings of insecurity, remain at
the more primitive level of an antithetical scheme of apperception. They may, for
example, see only the antithetical extremes of absolute stupidity or total brilliance.
Thus, if others do not recognize their brilliance, they assume that others think they
are stupid. If they are not adored by all, they may feel neglected or humiliated. If
they are not totally powerful, then they must be totally powerless.

While the scheme limits the person's ability to make realistic judgments, it does
serve the purpose of protecting the person's choice of a final goal and life style. If an
individual feels totally powerless, then it is perfectly logical (from the point of view
of his private logic) and is seemingly in his best interests to compensate by grabbing
all the power he can, even if this harms others. The person ignores or justifies this
harm because of his feeling of being totally powerless. In reality, however, he is
nottotally powerless. But if he recognized this, he would lose the justification or
motivation to strive in the direction of the final goal.

Discouraged individuals may function relatively well for some time. Their
functioning, however, is based on a pretense of value or significance that emerges
from their private ideas which do not hold up in reality. Eventually, their private
views clash with reality and lead to a shock -- e.g., difficulties in work, friendships,
love relationships, or family -- which may lead to the development of symptoms.

These symptoms, however, are not the main focus of an Adlerian understanding of
psychological difficulties. What is important is how individuals use their symptoms.
Symptoms are actually the smoke covering the fire of inferiority feelings. The
symptoms create a detour around and distance from the threatening tasks of life,
protecting the pretense. Three factors distinguish mild psychological disorders from
severe disorders: the depth of the inferiority feelings, the lack of the feeling of
community, and the height of the final goal.

In focusing too much on the symptoms, per se, we run the risk of neglecting what
underlies the symptoms -- the inferiority feelings. Unless the severity of these
inferiority feelings is diminished, the client will continue to use the symptoms like a
crutch for an injured, unhealed limb. And until this process is uncovered and
resolved, the person may just substitute one symptom for another.

Adlerian Interventions

Adler's contributions to mental health included several levels of intervention. While

the art of psychotherapy was his primary work, he also had a major impact on the
field of education in efforts to prevent psychological disorders (Adler 1957). Adler
started by training parents, but realized that in order to reach the majority of children
he needed to switch his focus to teachers. In Vienna he spent a great deal of time
lecturing to teachers and demonstrating how to understand and influence children. In
addition, he was asked to establish child guidance clinics attached to the schools
throughout Vienna. He saw prevention through education as the first level of
intervention and as a great investment in the future. Continuing in these efforts,
many of Adler's followers simplified some of the ideas for use by teachers and
parents (Dreikurs and Soltz 1964; Dreikurs and Grey 1968), thus furthering Adler's
influence.

The next level of intervention is counseling. Adlerian counseling is generally time-

limited, supportive therapy that is usually focused on specific problems. It leads to
moderate insight, attitude change, and behavioral change. Anthony Bruck, an
associate of Adler, developed brief counseling to a fine art, including the use of
explanatory graphics and charts (Bruck, 1978). Examples of the focus of counseling
include parenting, marital relationships, and career choice and development. These
interventions can help individuals cope with developmental milestones, life crises,
and change points in their lives. The potential for personality change at a deep level,
however, lies in psychotherapy.

The overall goal of Adlerian psychotherapy is helping an individual develop from a

partially functioning person into a more fully functioning one. Fully functioning
means solving each of the areas of life more cooperatively, more courageously, with
a greater sense of contribution and a greater sense of satisfaction. To do this, an
individual must identify and work toward becoming her best self. In other words, the
overall goal of therapy is to increase the individual's feeling of community. This is
very practical. It is not merely a matter of gaining insight, but of using that insight to
take concrete steps to improve relationships with family, friends, community, and
work. In its largest sense, the goal of therapy is not to improve just the client's life;
the therapist is working to improve the quality of life for everyone in the client's
circle of contact, as well as improving society through the client.

Thus, the first specific goal of therapy is not necessarily fulfilling the client's
expectation. The client may want instant, and somewhat magical, relief of symptoms
or to continue what he is doing without feeling so uncomfortable. The therapist has
to be sympathetic to this desire, but must clarify and establish, as quickly as possible,
the cooperative working relationship that is required for genuine improvement of a
difficult situation.

Adler suggested that we must provide a belated parental influence of caring, support,
encouragement and stimulation to cooperate. By reawakening courage and creativity
in the client, a new, unfamiliar feeling of community may develop as he discovers
that he has something valuable to offer. Some people have been cared for in a
mistakenly indulgent way and have absorbed it, but they have not learned to feel or
express a genuine caring for others. These people, although they need to be cared for
in a new encouraging way, also need to be challenged to start caring for others in this
new way.

Stages of Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy

For teaching purposes, Adlerian psychotherapy can be divided into twelve stages,
and within each stage, cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes are gradually
promoted (Stein, 1990). At the last three stages, the spiritual domain can also be
addressed. The stages reflect progressive strategies for awakening a client's
underdeveloped feeling of community. What we must remember, however, is that
the actual therapy is very spontaneous and creative and cannot be systematized into
steps to which we rigidly adhere. Empathy and encouragement, although emphasized
at certain points, are present in every stage of effective psychotherapy. A highly
abbreviated overview of the twelve stages follows [The stages were suggested by
Sophia de vries who studied with Alfred Adler. They were then developed by Henry
Stein].

Stage One: Empathy-Relationship Stage

The initial therapeutic goal is to help the client become a more cooperative person,
and this starts with learning to cooperate in therapy. When the client's cooperation is
lacking, the therapist can diplomatically point to this. If the client attempts to
endorse full responsibility for change to the therapist, the therapist can suggest that
the rate of progress will depend on the degree of cooperation between them.
Therapists may help in the discovery of some new helpful ideas, but the ideas must
be applied to improve a situation. Initially, the client may need to express a great
deal of distress with little interruption. In response, the therapist offers genuine
warmth, empathy, acceptance, and understanding. To understand the uniqueness of
each client, the therapist must be able to "stand in the shoes" of the client and "see
and feel" what the client is experiencing. If the client is feeling hopeless, the
therapist must be able to feel the client's hopelessness without feeling sorry for her,
but then step back and provide hope for change. Thus, the therapist must be able to
come close enough psychologically to the client in order to empathize, but withdraw
neutrally at some point in order to generate hope and discuss possible improvements.
An atmosphere of hope, reassurance, and encouragement enables the client to
develop feeling that things can be different.

Stage Two: Information Stage

The therapist gathers relevant information: the presenting problem and its history,
the client's level of functioning in the three life tasks, information about the family of
origin, early memories, and dreams. Religious and cultural influences may also have
significance. When appropriate, intelligence, interest, and psychological testing are
included.

The information given always contains a degree of distortion, as well as significant

omissions. After studying the parallel patterns of childhood and the present and
analyzing the rich projective material in early recollections and dreams, the therapist
develops preliminary hypotheses about the inferiority feelings, goal, life style,
private logic, and antithetical scheme of apperception.

Stage Three: Clarification Stage

Socratic questioning clarifies the client's core beliefs about self, others, and life.
Then the consequences of these beliefs are evaluated and compared with new
possibilities. Mistaken ideas and private logic are corrected to align with common
sense. The client's ideas must be unraveled to trace how she first adopted them in
childhood. A client may have the idea that if his wife doesn't give him what he
wants, then she doesn't love him. The therapist might ask a series of questions to
illuminate the private logic behind this statement: "Is it your idea that love is only
giving you what you want? What if what you want is no good for you? Should your
wife give you what is unhealthy for you? Is that really being loving?" These
questions will help the client explore the meaning he gives to love and marriage and
may come to change his private views of these matters.

Symptoms may serve as excuses for avoiding something that the client is not doing.
One way that the therapist can ferret this out is to ask the question: "If you did not
have these symptoms, what would you do?" The client's answer is often quite
revealing about what she is avoiding.

Stage Four: Encouragement Stage

The therapist cannot give clients courage; they must find it within themselves. The
therapist can begin this process by acknowledging the courage in what the client has
already done: e.g., coming to therapy. Then therapist and client together can explore
small steps that, with a little more courage, the client might take. It is through
actually trying new behaviors and realizing that disaster is not an inevitable
consequence that the client's courage grows.

Clients may have exaggerated inferiority feelings that they want to eliminate totally,
believing that if they realize their goal these painful feelings will disappear. The
therapist must first reduce these feelings to a manageable level and then convince the
clients that normal inferiority feelings are a blessing that they may "use" as a spur for
improvement.

Genuine self-esteem does not come from the approval or praise of others. It comes
from the person's own experience of conquering difficulties. Therefore, small
progressive action steps, aimed at overcoming previously avoided difficulties, must
be taken, one at a time. For many clients, this is equivalent to doing the "felt
impossible." During and after these steps, new feelings about efforts and results are
acknowledged and discussed.

In attempting to avoid failure, discouraged people often decrease their level and
radius of activity. They can become quite passive, wait for others to act, and limit
their radius of activity to what is safe or emotionally profitable. Gradually, the level,
radius, and quality of a client's activity must increase. A move in the wrong direction
is often a necessary first step which can then be corrected after commending the
attempt. Without new activity and experimentation there will be little real progress.
Some new success must be achieved to prepare for the next stage.

Stage Five: Interpretation and Recognition Stage

Psychological movements are the thinking, feeling, and behavioral motions that
clients make in response to the external tasks facing them. Thus, in addition to
listening to what the client says, the therapist must be attuned to what the client
actually has done and currently does in relation to life tasks. Movements in therapy
are the most visible. Does the client come on time or late; get off the track; talk all
the time and leave little opportunity for the therapist to say anything; agree with
everything but "forget" to put it into practice between sessions? The therapist's job is
to describe these movements precisely and help the client identify the immediate
goals or final goal to which they lead.

Depreciation and aggression are tactics clients use to elevate artificially their self
esteem and punish others for not living up to their mistaken expectations. Clients are
often quite clever in adopting the weapon that will hurt others the most. The therapist
must show the client how ineffective or childish the weapons are or that they
eventually hurt the client more than they hurt the intended victim.

To dissolve the client's antithetical scheme of apperception, the therapist must

dialectically question it. However, the client will probably resist this dialogue
because the scheme provides certainty and supports the pursuit of the childlike,
egocentric, final goal. Clients' final goals represent visions of what they imagine will
help them feel absolutely superior, safe, significant, and secure. When faced with
changing these final goals, the alternative often looks like being nobody, worthless,
and vulnerable. The client's scheme uses cognitive rigidity to generate very strong
feelings. It locks the client into a dichotomized, superior/inferior way of seeing the
world, evaluating experiences, and relating to others. Thus, to dissolve the
antithetical scheme of apperception, the therapist must help the client see the real
and subtly distinguishing qualities of people and experiences rather than dividing
impressions into "either-or," rigidly absolute categories.

All behavior is purposive and is aimed at moving toward the final goal. If clients
have goals that are on the useless side of life, then their emotions will also serve
these goals. Frequently, emotion is used to avoid responsibility for actions. This is
reflected in the often-heard claims of the client: "He made me angry; I couldn't help
it." Each individual's use of emotions is unique, and the therapist must be sensitive
and precise in identifying the underlying purposes of these emotions.
The final goal includes expectations of the roles that others should play. If the final
goal is to be adored, then others must play the role of adorers; if the final goal is to
dominate, then others must be submissive. The therapist must help the client identify
these expectations and their actual impact on relationships. Rather than having such
demands of others, clients need to learn how to generate self-demand, determining
what they will do to contribute to their own development and to other people and
situations.

After unfolding the meaning of the client's movements and their immediate goals,
the therapist eventually leads to interpreting the core dynamics of the client's
inferiority feeling, final goal, and style of life. Family constellation and experiences,
current behavioral patterns, early recollections, and dreams are integrated into a
unique, vivid, and consistent portrait.

In revealing the client's goal, diplomacy, good timing, and sensitivity are essential.
The client must feel the encouragement of new successes before she will feel open
and ready to face a clear picture of the mistaken direction she had previously
followed. The therapist helps the client evaluate the goal and discover what is really
gained or lost in this pursuit--using logic, humor, metaphors, reduction to absurdity,
and what Adler called "spitting in the soup." In this last strategy, the therapist makes
the final goal -- e.g., being powerful, intimidating, and demanding respect -- "taste
bad," perhaps by comparing it to being a Mafia don. The discussion around the
client's final goal reflects a very vigorous form of thinking about the meaning of life
and what the client is doing with it and what else he could or should be doing.

Stage Six: Knowing Stage

Previously, the client relied on the therapist to interpret her movements and their
connection to the life style and goal. Now the client interprets situations, sharing his
or her insights with the therapist. Many clients are tempted to terminate at this point,
feeling that they know enough, even though they have not actually applied their
insight and changed their main direction in life.

Stage Seven: Missing Experience Stage

Some clients cling to strong negative feelings through powerful images and
memories from childhood. These feelings may inhibit or poison their contact with
people. Others may lack a depth of positive feeling in their work and relationships.
They try to do "the right thing" but do not have a feeling of enjoyment or affection in
the process. They may have sufficient insight but not have enough positive
emotional anticipation to take new action. While it is possible with some clients to
promote change through cognitive interpretation, with others an emotional
breakthrough is more effective. The therapist can use role-play, guided imagery, or
eidetic imagery exercises to dissolve negative imprints from parents and siblings and
replace them with new nurturing, encouraging experiences and images. Ongoing
groups, or one-day group marathons are preferable for role-playing techniques,
utilizing group members for the parental or sibling figures. Longer individual
sessions can also be effective.

Stage Eight: Doing Differently Stage

Insight and newly found courage are mobilized to approach old difficulties and
neglected responsibilities. Small, experimental steps are ventured in the main arenas
of life. Initially, this is going to be hard for clients because they will not expect a
positive feeling as a result of taking steps in a new direction. However, it is possible
to start with what the person is willing to attempt and gradually make it more
socially useful. A very aggressive person who verbally attacks others might be
encouraged to attack his problems vigorously and productively instead.

Generally, all of the behavioral steps that clients are encouraged to take in therapy
are directed toward increasing their level of confidence and changing their life style.
However, profound change occurs after the client and therapist have together
identified and discussed the client's final goal and life style. On the basis of this
insight, then, the client can work to change the main direction of movement and
approach to the three main tasks of life (community, work, and love).

Stage Nine: Reinforcement Stage

Most of the client's actions have been egocentric, providing imagined protection or
self-enhancement, and neglecting the needs of others. The therapist helps clients
learn to let go of themselves and focus on others, on tasks, and the needs of
situations.

All of these new positive actions are encouraged and supported. As the client begins
overcoming major difficulties that had been previously avoided, courageous efforts,
good results, and feelings of pride and satisfaction are affirmed. As a result, the
egocentricity gradually dissolves. Emotional coaching may be needed to experience
and express the new positive feelings.

Stage Ten: Community Feeling Stage

The therapist's feeling of community has been demonstrated to the client

continuously, since the very first meeting, by accepting him unconditionally as a
fellow human being, expressing a deep interest through listening and concern for his
distress, and indicating a willingness to help. Perhaps skeptical of the therapist's
good will at first, the client has felt and appreciated the genuine caring and
encouragement.

The conquering of obstacles has generated courage, pride and a better feeling of self,
which now leads to a greater cooperation and feeling of community with the
therapist. This feeling should now be extended to connect more with other people,
cooperate with them, and contribute significantly to their welfare. As the client's new
feeling of community develops, she will become motivated to give her very best to
her relationships and her work.

Stage Eleven: Goal-Redirection Stage

When the client begins to let go of an old goal and life style of self-protection, self-
enhancement, and personal superiority over other people, he experiences a
temporary feeling of disorientation as a new horizon opens up. Now, after exploring
and experimenting, he may adopt a new, conscious life goal that is inspiring and
socially useful. He abandons his former direction and pursues the new one because it
yields a more positive feeling of self and greater appreciation from others.

Clients constantly observe their therapists and may use them as positive or negative
models. How therapists behave is critical, as it may interfere with the therapy
process if clients see that their therapists do not embody what they are trying to teach
the clients.

Maslow explored the characteristics of many fully functioning people and concluded
that what we usually refer to as "normal" or "average" functioning is actually a
commonly accepted form of very limited psychological development. He set the
standard of psychological health many notches higher than the benchmarks of most
of his contemporaries. Adler and Maslow were in agreement on this issue, which
was not to set our therapeutic sights merely on the "normal" or "average," but to
aspire to the ideal of what people could become. Not many clients may be willing to
reach this far -- but some will be interested, and the therapist should be prepared to
facilitate this journey.

As clients improve, the therapist can help them see that they can use new, more
liberating and inspiring guides for their lives. These alternative guides are what
Maslow called meta-motivation or higher values -- e.g., truth, beauty, justice
(Maslow 1971). The values that individual clients choose will depend on their
unique sensitivities and interests.
Stage Twelve: Support and Launching Stage

The client has learned to love the struggle of overcoming difficulties, now prefers
the unfamiliar, and looks forward to the unexpected in life. Feeling equal to others,
and eager to develop fully, she expresses a spirit of generosity and wants to share
what she has accomplished. Now the client can become a generator of
encouragement to other people.

Feeling stronger and functioning better, the client may need a self-selected challenge
to stimulate the development of his best self. The very best in a person does not
simply flow out, but is a response to a healthy self-demand. It may be stimulated by
an unexpected situation or a chosen challenge. The therapist may prompt the search
for such a challenge and can help the client evaluate what would be a worthy,
meaningful, stimulating, and socially useful challenge -- one that is neither too big
nor too small for the client's capabilities. For some clients, it may be the recognition
of a "mission" or "calling" in their lives.

Therapeutic Techniques

The creative freedom inherent in Adlerian practice demands a variety of strategies

that suit the uniqueness of each client and capture the spontaneous therapeutic
opportunities the client hands to us in each session. Although the twelve stages
represent a conceptual center line of treatment, essentially, a unique therapy is
created for each client. The specific techniques used at any one time depend on the
direction that seems currently accessible. Four main strategies characterize current
Classical Adlerian therapeutic technique: assessment, Socratic questioning, guided
and eidetic imagery, and role-playing [These strategies are rooted in the original
Adlerian treatment style and are enriched by the contributions of Sophia de Vries,
Alexander Müller, and Henry Stein].

Assessment. A thorough life style analysis serves as the guide to the therapeutic
process; generally this occurs during the first three stages of treatment. A central
technique that Adler pioneered to assess life style is the projective use of early
memories (Adler 1933). These memories, whether they are "true" or fictional,
embody a person's core beliefs and feelings about self and the world. They contain
reflections of the person's inferiority feelings, goal, scheme of apperception, level
and radius of activity, courage, feeling of community, and style of life.

In addition to these early memories, the therapist uses the following to do the
assessment: (1) description of symptoms, the circumstances under which they began,
and the client's description of what he would do if not plagued with these symptoms;
(2) current and past functioning in the domains of love relationships, family,
friendships, and school and work; (3) family of origin constellation and dynamics,
and extended family patterns, (4) health problems, medication, alcohol, and drug
use, and (5) previous therapy and attitude toward the therapist. While much of this
information can be collected in the early therapy sessions, it can also be obtained by
asking the client to fill out an Adlerian Client Questionnaire (Stein 1993). This
permits the client to answer in detail many important questions and increases the
client's level of activity in the therapy process. In addition, it saves some therapeutic
time and enables the therapist to obtain a binocular view from both the client's
written and verbal descriptions.

Socratic Questioning. The Socratic method of leading an individual to insight

through a series of questions lies at the heart of Adlerian practice (Stein 1990; Stein
1991). It embodies the relationship of equals searching for knowledge and insight in
a gentle, diplomatic, and respectful style, consistent with Adler's philosophy. In the
early stages of psychotherapy, the therapist uses questions to gather relevant
information, clarify meaning, and verify feelings. Then, in the middle stages of
therapy, more penetrating, leading questions uncover the deeper structures of private
logic, hidden feelings, and unconscious goals. The therapist also explores the
personal and social implications of the client's thinking, feeling, and acting, in both
their short and long term consequences. Throughout, new options are generated
dialectically, examined, and evaluated to help the client take steps in a different
direction of her own choosing. The results of these new steps are constantly
reviewed. In the latter stages of therapy, the Socratic method is used to evaluate the
impact of the client's new direction and to contemplate a new philosophy of life. The
Socratic style places the responsibility for conclusions and decisions in the lap of the
client. The role of the therapist is that of a "co-thinker," not the role of a superior
expert. Just as Socrates was the "midwife" attending the birth of new ideas, the
Adlerian therapist can serve as "midwife" to the birth of a new way of living for a
client.

Guided and Eidetic Imagery. For many clients, cognitive insight and new behavior
lead to different feelings. Some clients need additional specific interventions to
access, stimulate, or change feelings. Guided and eidetic imagery, used in an
Adlerian way, can lead to emotional breakthroughs especially when the client
reaches an impasse. Eidetic imagery can be used diagnostically to access vivid
symbolic mental pictures of significant people and situations that are often charged
with emotion. Guided imagery can be used therapeutically to change the negative
imprints of childhood family members that weigh heavily on a client and often ignite
chronic feelings of guilt, fear, and resentment. These techniques are typically used in
the middle stages of therapy. Alexander Müller recommended the use of imagery
when a client knew that a change in behavior was sensible, but still didn't take action
(Müller 1937). Some clients need a vivid image of themselves as happier in the
future than they presently are, before they journey in a new direction that they know
is healthier.

Role-Playing. In the middle stages of therapy, role-playing offers clients

opportunities to add missing experiences to their repertoire, and to explore and
practice new behavior in the safety of the therapist's office. To provide missing
experiences -- e.g., support and encouragement of a parent -- a group setting is
recommended. Group members, rather than the therapist, can play the roles of
substitute parents or siblings. In this way, a client can engage in healing experiences
and those who participate with him can increase their own feeling of community by
contributing to the growth of their peers. When learning and practicing new
behaviors, the therapist can offer coaching, encouragement, and realistic feedback
about probable social consequences. This is somewhat equivalent to the function of
children's play as they experiment with roles and situations in preparation for
growing up. Clients need to be treated with gentleness and diplomacy, yet offered
challenges that strengthen their confidence and courage.

Creativity in Psychotherapy

Adlerian psychotherapy is an art, not a science, and must be practiced with the same
integrity of any artistic endeavor. Though it is based on theory, philosophy, and
principles, its practice must come honestly from the heart. It is not a mere
technology that can be practiced "by the numbers," nor is it bag of tricks that can be
added successfully to an eclectic pile of value-free tools.

The uniqueness of each client requires constant invention. Similarly, the personality
of each therapist makes his or her approach inimitable. However, as Adler himself
(Hoffman 1994) and his followers demonstrated, the personality of the therapist
must be congruent with the philosophy of the therapy [This comes both from
personal knowledge of Sophia de Vries, Anthony Bruck, Alexander Müller, and Kurt
Adler and the description of Lydia Sicher's work (Davidson 1991)]. Through a
vigorous study analysis, an Adlerian therapist assesses and reduces to a manageable
level his own inferiority feelings, identifies and redirects the final goal and style of
life, and develops on all levels a strong feeling of community. In addition, the person
struggles with the philosophical issues of life and engages with the study analyst in a
search for higher values that would be most uniquely suited to that individual.

Meta-Therapy

Maslow labeled this latter aspect of therapy "meta-therapy" (Maslow 1971). He

suggested that the fullest development of human potential might require a more
philosophical process, one that went beyond the relief of suffering and the correction
of mistaken ideas and ways of living. Müller described the last phase of therapy as a
"philosophical discourse" (Müller 1968). For those clients who need and desire this
experience, Classical Adlerian psychotherapy offers the psychological tools and
philosophical depth to realize their quest.

Summary

We summarize Adler's psychology in six central principles [Based on propostitions

listed in Ansbacher and Ansbacher 1956, 1-2]. (1) Unity of the Individual: The
individual is not internally divided or a battleground of conflicting forces. Thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors are consistent with the person's style of life. (2) Goal
Orientation: A central personality dynamic originates from the growth and forward
movement of life itself. It is a future-oriented striving toward a goal of significance,
superiority, or success, which is frequently out of a person's awareness. In mental
health, it is a goal of superiority over general difficulties; in mental disorder, it is one
of superiority over others. The early childhood feelings of inferiority, for which an
individual aims to compensate, lead to the creation of a fictional goal. The depth of
inferiority feeling determines the height of the goal which then becomes the "final
cause" for the person's behavior. (3) Self-determination and Uniqueness: The goal
may be influenced by hereditary and cultural factors, but it ultimately springs from
the creative power and opinion of the individual. (4) Social Context: As an
indivisible whole, a system, the human being is also part of larger wholes or systems
-- family, community, culture, nation, humanity, the planet, the cosmos. In these
contexts, we meet the three important tasks of life: community, work, and love. All
are social problems. The way that individuals respond to the first social system, the
family, may become the prototype of their world view. (5) Feeling of Community:
Each human being has the capacity for developing the feeling of interconnectedness
with other living beings and learning to live in harmony with society. The personal
feeling of security is rooted in a sense of belonging and embeddedness in the stream
of social evolution. (6) Mental Health: Social usefulness and contribution are the
criteria of mental health. Maladjustment is characterized by an underdeveloped
feeling of community, a deeply felt inferiority feeling, and an exaggerated,
uncooperative goal of personal superiority. The goal of therapy is to increase the
feeling of community, promote a feeling of equality, and replace egocentric self-
protection, self-enhancement, and self-indulgence with self-transcending,
courageous, social contribution.

Does psychotherapy directly benefit a society or only the individual? Adler believed
that the ultimate purpose of psychotherapy was to help people contribute to the
social evolution of mankind. Müller added a spiritual element to this idea. He
suggested that a human being's mission in life was to work in partnership with God
to complete an unfinished world (Müller 1992). However Adler's philosophy is
expressed, in essence, it offers a socially responsible answer to the question of what
it means to be a human being.

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About the Authors

Henry T. Stein, Ph.D., founder and Director of the Alfred Adler Institutes of San
Francisco and Northwest Washington, has been training Adlerian therapists for
nearly twenty years. He studied with Sophia de Vries and Anthony Bruck, both of
whom were trained by Adler. Since 1992, he has been heading a task force to publish
the collected clinical works of Alfred Adler, and is working with Kurt Adler, Alfred
Adler's son, to translate a large number of previously unavailable articles and
lectures.

Martha E. Edwards, Ph.D., is a faculty member at the Ackerman Institute of

Family Therapy. She has taught Adlerian theory to family therapists and has used it
as the foundation of interventions and prevention programs for families in therapy
and schools.